I’m sure there are some people who have been watching my stories wondering what the heck we were doing in Atlantic City and what was up with all the free cruises. Welcome to my summer of scheming.
We met my mom, her friend and my grandma in Atlantic City this week and between the 5 of us racked up $150 freeplay, 4 free MSC cruises, 8 nights at Resorts World Vegas (plus $400 food credit and $400 freeplay there), 4 t-shirts, ate prime rib dinner for free at a VIP lounge and got 16 free nights in Atlantic City hotels from status matching alone.
A few years ago when I started travel hacking I learned about the “Status Match Merry Go Round” using credit cards and casino status tiers. Certain hotel chains have partnerships with the casino operators; this allowed you to match high level statuses earned through stays or credit cards to other programs and reap the benefits. And they in turn had reciprocal programs with the hotels that allowed you to ride the merry go round in a circle.
Example: We have Hyatt Explorist status from a combination of staying at a lot of Hyatts and using our World of Hyatt Credit Card. Until this past month, MGM would match that to their gold tier. Hyatt status resets February 1 each year, MGM resets in March. So in February you would use your still active MGM gold to match back to Hyatt Explorist and in March use your Hyatt Explorist to match back to MGM gold. Back and forth forever.
For the most part this type of matching is dead. They have created rules for the number of actual casino tier points you need to reap the rewards and allow matching primarily for “earned” status, if at all. MGM and Hyatt also announced last month that their partnership was ending and Marriott Bonvoy would be their new booking partner. No word yet on what that means for status match with Marriott.
BUT there is still a way to take advantage of these benefits without playing at the casino. We used 3 different methods on our trip. My mom and grandma earned MGM Gold organically. Adam still has MGM Gold from our last Hyatt Explorist match until 2024. And I went the route of the only matching scenario that’s still live from credit cards alone; Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card.
A few months ago I signed up for the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card with the goal of taking on Atlantic City and the status matches. It has a $95 annual fee and you will get 15,000 points on your anniversary each year (worth $175-$300+). If all else failed with Atlantic City, it comes with a 50,000 Wyndham point sign up bonus for $3,000 in spend the first 3 months and 25,000 more points when you spend $10,000 in the first year. I’m planning on using those points with their partner, Vacasa. That makes the points themselves worth $1,500. It also gives you Diamond Status with Wyndham which mostly means room upgrades (including suites). We were also able to use this card to access a lounge at a Wyndham sponsored PGA tournament in nearby North Carolina earlier this month.
Aside from the amazing value right there, a big perk with this card is that Wyndham Diamond matches to Caesar’s Rewards Diamond. This tier qualifies you for 2-4 free nights at Atlantis in the Bahamas each year (~$66/nt resort fees), $100 celebration dinner at a Caesar’s property (or $50 Uber Eats), $20 Bonus Bet credits each month if you do sports betting in the app (with some qualifiers) and access to Caesar’s Players Club lounges for $10 in comps (Fancy mini buffets w/ free booze). The one drawback I’ve experienced with it so far is that you need to rematch from Wyndham to Caesar’s each year in February and my first match was a PAIN. There was a nice pretty form on the website, but with calls, emails and twitter messages it took me a month to get it approved. Hopefully year 2 will be easier. For the perks you can receive I would say it’s definitely worth the effort though.
That’s where the fun starts. Atlantic City has some unique players programs with perks that make it the go to destination for matching statuses. First you need to obtain a physical copy of your new Caesar’s Diamond card. There are 3 Caesar’s properties in Atlantic City to do this at: Caesar’s, Harrah’s and Tropicana. I printed my Caesar’s Diamond card in Windsor while we were home for the summer. This allowed us to get off the train in Atlantic City and head right to our first match: Hard Rock Atlantic City. I presented the person at the desk with my ID and Caesar’s Diamond card and asked to sign up for a players card and status match. This should match you to Rock Royalty. New players who have never had a card there and status match to Rock Royalty currently get: $50 freeplay and 2 free nights at their hotel (bookable 48+ hours later). If you have already had a card with them in the past you just get the status. As far as notable perks from the status, you get access to their players lounge or the buffet for $10 in comps per person and a free car wash once a month. Nothing too flashy, but this is the intermediary stage.
Keep in mind Hard Rock AC is currently in the process of changing programs to merge with the other Hard Rock Casinos, but for now they run their own program. When they switch to Unity this should still work with Icon status, but obviously no one knows until it happens.
The last match to execute the scheme is to go 1/4 of a mile down the boardwalk to Ocean Casino. For this one you can be a completely new player or have been inactive for 18+ months. You again ask to sign up for their players card and status match to your Hard Rock Rock Royalty card. This should match you to Ocean Prime status. They will walk you through your free parking hang tag and tier match benefits like a voucher for you and a guest to their players lounge (good for 72 hours) and 2 free nights at their hotel (bookable 48+ hours later). They’ll also hand you the travel brochure and summary of perks. We got a free t-shirt for being new members too which was nice. They didn’t mention anything to us about the cruise and Resorts World benefits more than to hand us the pamphlet. But as Ocean Prime you are entitled to those benefits starting the 15th of the month following your sign up date (they manually send new players over then). The caveat with this one is their status resets July 1 every year. So all your cruises and Vegas stays need to be completed by June 30. So we will have about 10 months to use ours.
And that’s it! I would love to say easy peasy, but there was a lot of stress leading up to it with program changes. We were lucky to snag matches for both Adam and myself. I can’t wait to follow up with what perks we end up using! And I’d love to answer any questions if you have ’em.
